“We would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear”

◼ (Remarkable quotes), when New Hampshire’s largest newspaper, the Union Leader, endorsed the former House speaker over the former Massachusetts governor. - Washington Times

“We would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear,” the newspaper wrote in a front-page editorial that was as much an indirect rebuke of Mr. Romney as it was an endorsement of Mr. Gingrich.

“We don’t have to agree with them on every issue … . We are in critical need of the innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that Gingrich has shown he is capable of providing,” the paper said.

◼ An Editorial: For President, Newt Gingrich - NH Union Leader

Truth be known, many in the liberal media are belittling the Republican candidates because they don't want any of them to be taken as a serious challenger to their man, Obama.

Readers of the Union Leader and Sunday News know that we don't back candidates based on popularity polls or big-shot backers. We look for conservatives of courage and conviction who are independent-minded, grounded in their core beliefs about this nation and its people, and best equipped for the job.

◼ Quotes of the day - HotAir

◼ Whether his recent rise in the polls is lasting or not, Newt Gingrich has already shifted Campaign 2012 for the better. The feisty former speaker of the House has reminded us through his debate performances that knowledge is an important part of a president’s work. - Amity Shlaes/Bloomberg

Gingrich doesn’t project electability or character in the sense we usually mean. “Character” is what you want your daughter to marry. You don’t want your daughter to marry Newt. Nor does he have the purity of inexperience -- Gingrich isn’t like Palin or Herman Cain. He’s an insider’s insider, with all the dirt and baggage that connotes.

But Gingrich does project a terrifying authority of policy knowledge. Voters have been warming to Gingrich because he’s right -- about the budget, about Social Security reform, about plenty of other substantive themes he’s elaborated on since the debates began.

Gingrich’s responses are filled with fresh ideas and concrete examples....
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Newt Gingrich

Canada to pull out of Kyoto Protocol next month

◼ Canada will announce next month that it will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, CTV News has learned. - CTV

"Canada goes to Durban with a number of countries sharing the same objective, and that is to put Kyoto behind us," Kent said.

ATF gun probe: Behind the fall of Operation Fast and Furious

◼ When the National Rifle Association launched a TV ad campaign this month to have Attorney General Eric Holder fired, it culminated a political frenzy over a once-obscure Arizona gun-smuggling case. - Arizona Republic

When the National Rifle Association launched a TV ad campaign this month to have Attorney General Eric Holder fired, it culminated a political frenzy over a once-obscure Arizona gun-smuggling case....

(After Border Patrol Agent Terry was killed) A growing number of ATF employees wanted to expose Fast and Furious. The question: How?

Dobyns and Cefalu began networking with two of the most prominent and prolific Second Amendment bloggers in America.

David Codrea, an Ohio-based writer, is field editor for GUNS Magazine and an author on a website known as "The War on Guns: Notes From the Resistance."

Mike Vanderboegh runs a website, Sipsey Street Irregulars, which he identifies as a gathering place for the 3 percent of Americans willing to fight for the right to bear arms.

Vanderboegh and Codrea, longtime friends, this year received Soldier of Fortune Magazine's Second Amendment Freedom Award and the David and Goliath Award from Jews for Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

Dobyns says he turned to the bloggers because of a shared animus toward ATF administrators. "Do they have an agenda? Of course they do," he said. "But it's my experience that they're not anti-ATF; they're anti-bad ATF."

Codrea and Vanderboegh began churning out essays on Fast and Furious, even giving the operation its sardonic nickname, "Project Gunwalker." They joined forces with other bloggers, government employees and gun dealers in what Vanderboegh calls "a coalition of willing Lilliputians."

Their reports, frequently quoting anonymous sources, exposed the dubious investigative strategy but went much further, speculating that the White House was involved. A typical posting by Vanderboegh carried the headline, "... Obama's Gunwalker Was a Deliberate Conspiracy Vs. the 2nd Amendment."

That hypothesis has gone viral in the gun-rights blogosphere. Proponents, noting that Obama was endorsed by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence during the 2008 campaign, claim that high-placed officials in Washington, D.C., devised a plan to flood Mexico with firearms as justification for a crackdown on gun ownership.

◼ Gun Rights Examiner earns Sunday headlines in Arizona Republic and WorldNetDaily - examiner.com

◼ David's take on Arizona Republic article posted earlier today. - Sipsey Street Irregulars

See also: ◼ Project Gunwalker Scandal Resources:

David Codrea's Journalist Guides:

Volume One
Volume Two
Volume Three
Volume Four
Volume Five
Volume Six
Sharyl Attkisson's stories on CBS
Official Correspondence on the Project Gunwalker Scandal.

Does Obama really want to win?

◼ There are only two ways to look at the Obama re-election campaign right now: Either the upstart candidate who stunned the world when he defeated the Clinton machine to capture the Democratic nomination three years ago has lost every bit of that massive mojo, or the bruised and battered president, after three years in office, just doesn’t want another spin in the Oval Office. - Joseph Curl/The Washington Times

How else to explain the nonstop missteps, the stammering and stuttering campaign, not to mention the brazen attacks on American voters, who, he has said, have “fallen behind,” lost their “ambition and imagination,” gotten “lazy” and “a bit soft” - this is a guy seeking the support of America?!

...“Once having won the office,” the MSNBC cheerleader (Chris Matthews) said, “he seemed to think that that was the end of it in terms of his connection to the American people. … I think everybody feels an absence of communication from the time he’s been elected. And it’s not about not being left-wing enough or too left. That’s not his problem. It’s connection. And Mrs. Obama, she’s an amazing asset. And what has she done? Obesity? How about connecting with the American people about being Americans? I don’t think she’s happy. I don’t think they like being in the White House. The American people can tell that. They don’t seem thrilled at the fact the American people have selected them as our first family. I don’t sense the gratitude, the happiness level, the thrill of being president.”

Thanksgiving’s over. We’re now just 37 days from the Jan. 3 caucuses:

◼ Iowa Heats Up - The Other McCain

Gingrich wins NH Union Leader endorsement

◼ Newt Gingrich received the endorsement of the influential editorial board of the New Hampshire Union Leader on Sunday - The Hill

The endorsement gives the former House Speaker additional momentum after a month which has seen him vault to the top of national GOP polls.

"We are in critical need of the innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that Gingrich has shown he is capable of providing," said the editorial by publisher Joseph W. McQuaid.

"A lot of candidates say they're going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that, and in this race he offers the best shot of doing it again," he added.

◼ Bill Clinton Praises Newt: "He's Articulate" And Attracts Independents - Real Clear Politics
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Newt Gingrich